Consultant recommends environmental review of all three desal proposals

A consultant has recommended the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority use its influence to urge state officials to conduct a parallel environmental review of competing seawater desalination proposals, rather than focusing only on California American Water's preferred project.

Independent water resources consultant Kris Helm delivered that message in a memo to the water authority's technical advisory committee, which discussed Helm's preliminary findings on Monday.

Helm was hired by the authority to conduct an evaluation of permitting and financing aspects of three desal proposals, including Cal Am's north Marina desal plant, Nader Agha's People's Project, and Brent Constantz's Deep Water Desal, as part of a larger comparison study being led by SPI, Inc.

Helm wrote that he was struck by the "limited ability" of the state Public Utilities Commission to act as lead agency for environmental review of the desalination project based entirely on the structure of Cal Am's proposal.

A cursory review of available data for the projects, he wrote, indicated that all three of the proposals include "difficult issues" with the "substantial potential" to present obstacles during environmental review that could result in project delays.

Given the potential that problems with either approach could prove fatal to any preferred project's future, he wrote that "it is imprudent for the (authority) to put all of its reliance upon an administrative process that is designed around a preference for one alternative versus another."

Instead, he argued he felt "very strongly that the (authority) should make every effort to ensure that these fundamentally different approaches is given equal footing in the environmental review.

"Indeed, to my way of thinking, the administrative process for review would be fundamentally flawed if it were to pre?determine which of these methods of interfacing with the ocean is superior to the other."

Helm said the authority could play a vital role in answering critical questions related to the proposals and the environmental review process.

He said the CPUC is preparing a notice of intent and is expected to conduct environmental review scoping hearings in the next few weeks.

Helm also suggested schedules for the desal proposals all seem to be "overly optimistic" given the uncertain path for environmental review and the difficult questions to be evaluated and resolved, and recommended the authority work with the project proponents on a more detailed compliance schedule.

Helm said it has taken other desal projects, such as Carlsbad, several years to obtain major permits such as coastal development and pollution discharge following certification of an environmental impact report.

The advisory committee postponed consideration of a preliminary report from SPI, which found that all three desal proposals included potential obstacles that could be overcome by the 2016 deadline for providing a replacement source of water for the Peninsula, which is facing a state?ordered cutback in pumping from the Carmel River.